お誕生日おめでとう河川ちゃん

This year, her birthday fell on a Saturday, which gave the SPI perfect reason to have a huge party in the city with the alumni. Which was kind of silly, because they were a club of three and most of the alumni who were off at universities across the country. But the ones nearby -- that is to say, the ones that were worth keeping in contact with --  had wired money to get herself, and Jou, and Kizu down to Tokyo on the mid morning train. 

Kasen didn't want to know how Homura-senpai convinced sensei to waive off a trip into city as a "club activity" so they could miss classes but she wasn't going to look a gift horse in the mouth. 

Senpai greeted them at the station, and her older brother was tagging along, "just to make sure there's not going to be too much fun," he added with a wink. Kasen rolled her eyes at how lame Hiroya was, but was rather happy that he was here, especially since they couldn't see each other as often as she would like. 

It was.... strange, to say the least. They ended up in Akihabara and eating lunch at a maid cafe (which was strange and hillarious because the maids kept flocking to Aniki, trying to "curry" his favor. She hadn't seen Hiroya go so red in years) before they explored the rest of the city.

And then they hit Ni-chome. The very different, very gay Ni-Chome.
Kasen didn't even know her brother knew about gay nightlife, and she would readily admit that all her knowledge was second hand through BL manga.
There was a dive bar that Homura-senpai and Hiroya-nii went often, where drinks were cheap and plentiful (and watered down) and the staff didn't look too closely at identification, the perfect place for a bunch of underage students to get smashed at.  

And they got smashed. Very, very smashed. 

(Homura and Hiroya-nii started making out. Kasen was jealous for all of three minutes before deciding that,no, watching her older brother and her high school crush suck face was kind of freaking hot, and it was a memory she'll remember for the rest of her life)

(She doesn't remember Jou stuttering as he drank more and more beer, trying to admit that he liked her. She also doesn't remember that she had smiled at him goofily and had kissed him on the cheek and patted it and called him a 'good boy'. Jou does, and he cherishes that memory for the years he goes without seeing Kasen).

They crashed at the duo's apartment sometime after 3am, giggly and happy and more than a little drunk, but that was fine because they didn't have classes, Hiroya always had advil and they had fun.

As she curled up on one of the makeshift beds made up of some spare pillows and a blanket, Kasen thought about her impending applications to schools too far away to meet up and hand out like this. At least it was one last chance to make good memories with them all.